Political Googahoo

Hey guys, I just wanted to say it was a pleasure to meet all of you. I wish you guys the best and good times moving forward with this degree program. I found it to be mostly harmless, (just don't forget to bring a towel!). Thanks again to Ravi and Dr. G. - I had a great time in class. Hope to see you all again soon. In the meantime, check out Political Googahoo. Thanks.

~Jake

Rinkrat's Ruminations is up

I think the timing is interesting with this since in the Globe magazine today, a columnist was poking fun at the internet telephone age.... they say timing is everything.:)


Please feel free to take a look, vote, and see what you think.



Many thanks and best wishes to all,





G





http://rinkratsruminations@blogspot.com

EE Blog

Dear Friends,

I hope that you enjoy reading my blog. This was a very interesting and intellectual experience. Thank you very much for all of your help and support.

Best wishes,

Eric Estevez


keepingthemhonestwithericestevez.blogspot.com

Daniela's Blog - BG RSG Coach

I hope you like it! BG (Bulgarian) RSG (Rhythmic Sportive Gymnastics) Coach :)

Nokia Morph

This is what I was trying to show you guys yesterday. I think its pretty cool.

http://www.nokia.com/A4879144

Katy's Blog

Welcome to The Big Show!

On Demand

Click to Play

Today in our own living room we are able to re-watch TV programs. I was able to see againg the Opening ceremony of the Olympics, a week later in On Deman/ Comcast.

New form of Male Rhythmic Gymnastics

Whale Watch

Click to Play

It is an incredible event.

Political Googahoo

Here is my blog site. Its still a work in progress, but I have started to post there so feel free to come over and make comments and post.

Whale Watching

Click to Play

A short video of a whale watching trip out of Gloucester, MA on a beautiful Saturday in August. This video was created for a Media and Technology Class

My candicacy

I don't know if you all have heard the news, but I'm kinda big time now. I'd really appreciate your support. Together we can set this nation back on course. Eric, I'm gonna need a running mate, you interested?

Interesting Olympic Article

This is an interesting article by ESPN's Rick Reilly about China and the Olympics.

Assignment for August 27

In conjunction with the 500 word post that you are all writing for Ann, please present that post in your own blog, showcasing integrated media (I'd love to see Media that you've created).

So set up a blog that will reflect your point of view by considering the colors, fonts, templates and customizable elements of that blog (ie. Gadgets). Embed video and add images, all the time providing the sources to your media.

Northeastern Campus

Pre-Class Ritual

I figured I would share with you guys my pre-class ritual. Some people, they listen to heavy metal music loud to get pumped up. Others might meditate, do some yoga, or say a prayer. Still others might eat a high carb lunch and rub a fat man's belly for luck. Me, I just read about predatory leadership in Sub-Saharan Africa while making goofy faces until one of you guys shows up.

FEC Re-affirms Blogs are Equal to Traditional Media

Last week, the Federal Election Commission reaffirmed that online media outlets can advocate on behalf of particular candidates without falling subject to campaign finance restrictions. This is a critical ruling for bloggers because it maintains that blog sites should be treated in a similar fashion as the "mainstream" traditional media outlets.

As reported by Wendy Davis on MediaPost Publications, the ruling came in the wake of a complaint made by a Hillary Clinton supporter who alleged that a pro-Barack Obama blog was actually 'a direct arm' of the Obama campaign, and therefore subject to campaign finance restrictions.

As Davis goes on to explain,

"The complaint was brought last October by Clinton supporter Kirk Tofte, who alleged that the blog Iowa True Blue, operated by former Iowa Democratic Party chairman Gordon Fischer, had coordinated with Obama's campaign. Tofte alleged that Fischer endorsed Obama in September, after which he began posting critical items about Clinton."

The FEC rejected Tofte's claim and maintained that even had [Fischer] done so, it would not have triggered campaign finance restrictions stating, "Any coordination would have been permissible ... because the activity was specifically exempted from the definition of 'public communication.'"

This ruling is in line with a previous ruling made in September of 2007 wherein an FEC complaint was lodged against Kos Media, LLC. (the blog Daily Kos). There, the FEC ruled in favor of Daily Kos, rejecting the idea that the site operates as a 'political committee' and was subject to campaign finance restrictions.

Both the Kos and True Blue rulings uphold the March of 2006 declaration wherein the FEC stated that online media publications were also exempt, unless they were owned by a candidate, party, or committee.

But to give a greater perspective, these rulings only go to bolster the idea that blog sites are just another form of media. Although traditional outlets (such as newspapers, magazines, and network and cable news) have been exempt from campaign finance restrictions since 1974, the FEC's position regarding online media had been untested until these more recent cases. These precedents have maintained an equality between blog sites and major news sources.

Red Sox Fan!!

Click to Play

This is a video that I shot out side of my house. The last time the red sox won

Whale Watching

Click to Play

This is what I put together for the assignment: A short video of a whale watching trip out of Gloucester, MA on a beautiful Saturday in August set to super cheesy music. enjoy! (Not sure why the video opens up to a new page to play. any suggestions??)

Final/group project specifications

For the culminating group project of our course, I would like to see each of you develop a prediction of what the future holds in terms of media and communication technologies for each of your scenarios (Election and Olympics) -- so say each in the year 2012. Create a new blog post with your thoughts, supported by any media elements (picture, video, audio). I'm most interested in imaginative concepts that build upon the technologies we've been looking at in class. Be creative!

Again, each of you should create your own prediction -- utilize your fellow group mates to generate discussion and ideas. And tap into the tools we've looked at (blogs, video, podcasts, etc.)

As an example, if this class was taking place in 1996 -- one could have speculated that in the future each candidate would have elaborate web sites for their campaigns (remember the web was still relatively 'new' in the mid 1990s). This prediction could have been supported by some photoshop mock-ups of what a full fledged candidate web site would have looked like -- detailing specific elements of what a robust web site in 2000 would have (ie. a map with links to campaign stops, video clips, anything else that seemed 'out there' in 1996).

Key Commands

Some of the key commands we've been using in class:

Command(also known as the Apple-key) and tab --> Switch applications

Shift and Command and '4' --> Make a selective screen grab

Command and the 'tilde' key (left of number 1) --> Switch between open windows within an application

There are lots of resources on-line that go over key command, but here's a good one that I recommend checking out: http://www.danrodney.com/mac/index.html

In particular, look at the sections 'Application Switcher' and 'Taking Screenshots'

Lunch Minute: Episode One

Click to Play

Jake interviews Eric about his lunch.

Assignment for 08/13/08

1. Register onto blip.tv (if you have not already)

2. Edit and output video using iMovie (or similar PC program) -- make it work!

3. Upload video to your blip account.

4. Cross-post to class-blog

5. Check out this learning tool for tips on all of this!

"China's Olympic Nightmare" - Foreign Affairs Magazine

This is the link to the partial article on-line - "China's Olympic Nightmare". I would have to scan the whole article. It is much longer than what is available on-line. This article is made available, courtesy of the Foreign Affairs magazine.

scrabble goes to court

Please follow this case for next week.

Radovan Karadzic is set to appear in the court for first time

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is in UN custody after he was arrested by the Serbian Secret Service on Monday according to Swiss Info Channel. He was taken to Serbian Court, which decided to give custody to the UN crime court in Hague. Karadzic had change his appearance and was walking freely on the street practising alternative medicine. According to Swiss Info Channel and BBC the arrest of Karadzic is very positive step for Serbia. Formerly, the Serbian government was heavily criticized for not turning in the suspect war criminals. Now that the government has to deal with the separation of Kosovo and the accusation from the UN that no peaceful actions have been adopted for dealing with Kosovo, Serbia is trying to show the world and more over the EU and the UN that they can be responsible for their actions. Serbia wants to be considered for EU accession soon and their looking to promote more positive look over their politics. (It is an interesting fact that Karadzic was not arrested for 13 years after many people have said they had seen him.)




Karadzic is set to appear in court on Thursday at 4 PM local time (10 AM EST). At that time one would know how is the former Bosnian Serb leader going to plead and defend against the "11 charges of including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, which Brammertz called "the most serious crimes under international law". (CNN World News)

Ravi assignment for 08/06/08

1. Go to blip.tv -- set up account.

2. Shoot one minute of video on any device to bring into class. Please bring any connecting cables, as well.

FGG

EX

iframe height="339" width="425" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/25934315#25934315" frameborder="0" scrolling="no">

EX

iframe height="339" width="425" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/25934315#25934315" frameborder="0" scrolling="no">

Media Bias: Human Rights in China

The human rights condition in Beijing, China is getting worse as the summer Olympic Game approaches, BBC News reported on July 29, 2008. Beijing re-establishes the use of “re-education through labour”, the control of rights activists and journalists, and the use of random incarceration, according to Amnesty International. China, however, denied all charges.

A spokesperson is pleading to world leaders who will attend the Games to protest against China’s human rights violations. However, Chinese government officials denied the charges. A Chinese spokesperson, Li Jianchao, said that “I hope that Amnesty International can take off the tainted glasses they have been wearing for years and see China in a fair and objective way, and do something more constructive".

The Chinese government is well known for denying human rights charges in the past. Now the Chinese government is saying that government “reforms have improved” the situation in the country and its economic management has enhanced the quality of life for millions of Chinese people. Essentially, what the Chinese government is telling us is that while the West is outsourcing and interfering in its internal affairs, the Chinese government is doing a better job promoting reform and managing its economy to improve the quality of life for Chinese people.

According to my sister, Wendy, who is currently studying in Beijing, the “Chinese news agency” reported that the West is trying to “destroy the Olympic Games for China.” Chinese news agency said the human rights allegation is the “West maneuver to sabotage” the Olympic Games in Beijing, according to Wendy. She also said the Chinese people and her classmates are happy and willing to make any required sacrifices for the Olympic.

As we have discussed in class last week, the news media is bias. Every news agency reports in ways that are desirable. Different countries, on the other hand, report news that is beneficial to their national interest. BBC News reports human rights violation in China, while China defends its human rights policy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7529453.stm

Blogging in China??

As we have been discussing in this class trying to get information about a particular event is best done when you view a number of sources. I decided to look into citizen journalist covering the Beijing Olympics. Many blogs are covering this popular topic but not as many as I had hoped to find writing from inside China. There are a number of them being updated on a regular basis but I never seemed to find one that I felt was comprehensive enough. It is well known China is not a country known for its freedom of expression and blogging is not any different. ‘Bloggers’ have lost their jobs in China based on what they have wrote online, such as ex-policemen Wu Youming



One of the early blog supporting websites in China, Sohoxiaobao, is currently shut down.

(See Article Here).

When I googled their site and used the google translation key the following text came up:

"SOHO tabloid network temporarily closed notice

Because of a lack of self-discipline of individual netizens in the tabloid published a blog of sensitive information, and public opinion does not match demand, resulting in SOHO tabloid network was temporarily closed, we are the procedures to apply for the lifting of the ban.

Is suspended, all data are well-preserved, time to resume the use of a separate notice to inform, Thank you for your understanding and support!

At the same time, let us care for SOHO tabloid from the desire of network, especially in the Olympic Games, cautious statement, the law prohibited release of information.
SOHO tabloid network

July 18, 2008"

There were a few blogs that I was able to access that had information but to get a full story of the situation in China (for the Olympics and beyond) those blogs needed to be paired with news agencies to get a fuller picture. It would also help if I was able to read Chinese as many of my findings were a language I can not read. One site that, I think, is of interest:

Beijing Olympics Fan

Context and Media Matters

This blog on today's Dailykos is a great example of how an op-ed in a major national newspaper (in this case, The Washington Post) can take a comment out of context and twist it to suit the writer's political agenda.

Sometimes, as the contents of an op-ed are echoed by cable news sites, the contextual fact that is purposely left out, is muddied or lost in the frenzy of TV sound bites . The falsehood that the op-ed initially states, for disingenuous purposes, is then transformed perceptively into a viable point of contention, open to an honest discussion. At this point, the current trend is to have purported "experts," "debate" the validity of the context on shows like Hannity and Colmes or Hardball. However, once such action is taken, the initial misrepresentation becomes something more analogous to supportable opinion as opposed to the out right fallacy it had always been. In short, this sort of coverage of deliberate and deceitful conjecture generally fuels misconceptions that run rampant through public mindsets all the while perpetuating unethical journalistic practices in the mainstream media.

If you ever hear something on TV, or read an op-ed in a paper that is reported as a viable, fact-based, opinion but you have questions concerning its true validity and want to know more, check out the website Media Matters for America.